EndoTheia Announces FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for Technology to Improve Endoscopic Surgery

EndoTheia a Nashville-based medical device company, announced that it has gained priority status from the FDA by receiving a Breakthrough Device designation from the agency for its technology that radically improves minimally invasive flexible endoscopic surgery. It is only the seventh device in the category of Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) devices to ever receive this designation. The designation will streamline the regulatory process, enabling EndoTheia to rapidly bring its innovative solution to doctors and patients.

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“EndoTheia was founded in 2018 to develop the next generation of medical devices for flexible endoscopy with the goal of increasing effectiveness through added flexibility and dexterity”

EndoTheia’s Breakthrough Device leverages foundational technology that was originally invented at Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee. This technology, based on extremely thin-walled, laser-machined metallic tubes, enables the creation of highly flexible, steerable devices that can pass through standard endoscopes, while also carrying within themselves interventional tools. The steerability that these devices provide to endoscope-delivered tools opens the door for new diagnostic and therapeutic applications of flexible endoscopy. EndoTheia’s disruptive platform technology can be used across a vast array of clinical specialties, including urology, gastroenterology, neurology, and otology.

“EndoTheia was founded in 2018 to develop the next generation of medical devices for flexible endoscopy with the goal of increasing effectiveness through added flexibility and dexterity,” stated Robert J. Webster, III, PhD, Co-Founder and President of EndoTheia. “EndoTheia’s technology is currently the only viable option to add dexterity to flexible endoscopy, without re-engineering the endoscope itself. This empowers surgeons to provide much more accurate and precise therapeutic interventions in a wide range of clinical specialties.” The National Institutes of Health has corroborated this sentiment by providing millions of dollars of grant funding to EndoTheia to commercialize products in urology, gastroenterology, and otolaryngology.

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S. Duke Herrell, III, MD, FACS, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of EndoTheia, added, “We are excited that the FDA has recognized the huge potential of EndoTheia’s technology through Breakthrough Device designation. The FDA has affirmed our view that there is nothing else out there capable of doing what we do for flexible endoscopy, and that our technology represents a breakthrough treatment option for patients who currently face irreversibly debilitating disease.”

EndoTheia’s team of internationally recognized clinical and engineering experts includes Dr. Webster and Dr. Herrell, along with Joshua Gafford, PhD, Chief Technical Officer, and Caleb Rucker, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and primary inventor of the Company’s underlying technology. Drs. Webster and Herrell, along with others, co-founded the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE), and Dr. Rucker leads the REACH Robotics Lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Gafford has been leading the internal development and commercialization efforts at EndoTheia since the Company’s incorporation in 2018.

EndoTheia has demonstrated feasibility in animal, cadaver, and tissue model studies in surgeries for biliary disease, ureteroscopy kidney stone removal, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), endoscopic neurosurgery, sinus surgery, and middle ear surgery. EndoTheia’s technology can provide dexterity in any procedures where tools are delivered through flexible endoscopes, including urology, neurology, interventional pulmonology, gastroenterology, colorectal, orthopedics, otolaryngology (ENT), and other sub-specialties.

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